Vance Bedford - A Man Apart
Monday, September 29, 2008 | Football
By Kate Manly, UF Communications
It seems difficult to stand apart on a coaching staff that boasts over 200 years of combined experience and over 100 bowl game appearances. All 10 coaches on the Florida football staff have instructed players that went on to the National Football League and eight have experienced what it was like to win a national title. Among all of the accolades and experience that the coaching staff at Florida possess, there is one man that stands apart.
Vance Bedford is the only member of the current coaching unit that has coaching experience at the NFL level. The first-year coach at Florida spent five seasons with the Chicago Bears from 1999-2004. During his tenure with the Bears, Bedford instructed a secondary unit that returned seven interceptions for touchdowns during a four-year stretch, equaling the team's total from the previous nine seasons combined.
Bedford left the Bears to return to the collegiate level as a defensive coordinator at Oklahoma State, but his years spent coaching in the NFL left a lasting impression and has affected his coaching style ever since.
“Spending time in the NFL as a coach gave me the chance to develop,” Bedford said. “Even though guys are in the NFL, you still have to break things down for them. You still have to treat them like they're young guys. Coming back to college, now I understand young guys better. It taught me to slow down, not be in a rush.”
Although his years spent in the NFL set him apart from his co-workers, Bedford does have many ties to the Florida football program. Because those ties run deep, it didn't come as much of a surprise when it was announced that Bedford had been hired as cornerbacks' coach, filling the vacancy left by John “Doc” Holliday following the 2007 season.
There is little doubt that Bedford learned a lot from his early days of coaching and that his years spent coaching at the high school and junior college levels have also impacted the way in which he coaches. His coaching career first began at Forest Brook High School in his hometown of Houston, Texas. After one year at Forest Brook, Bedford moved on to coach at Navarro Junior College in Coriscana, Texas. Corsicana is also home to freshman wide receiver Omarius Hines.
Bedford's five years spent at Colorado State is where many of his connections to the Gators' coaching staff originated. He had already been the defensive backs' coach at CSU for three years, when in 1990, two current Gator coaches would enter his life – one as a coach and one as an athlete.
Head coach Urban Meyer joined the CSU staff as the wide receivers' coach after serving four years in the same position at Notre Dame. One of his position players, Billy Gonzales, joined the team that same year. One year later, Chuck Heater joined the staff and served as the Rams' defensive coordinator. The quartet spent the 1991 and 1992 seasons together before they went separate ways, only to be reunited 16 years later.
During those 16 years, Bedford made many stops along the coaching path, including two separate stints at the University of Michigan. His first term in Ann Arbor, from 1995-98, was highlighted by a national title in 1997. An instrumental member of the 1997 squad was one of Bedford's position players, defensive back Charles Woodson, who took home the Heisman Trophy that very same year.
Bedford spent his time between periods at Michigan with the Bears and then as the defensive coordinator at Oklahoma State from 2005-06 before joining the staff at Florida. For Bedford, the decision to leave The Big House for The Swamp wasn't much of a decision at all.
“There was no pitch,” the University of Texas graduate said. “I left one of the greatest universities that you can go to and came to another one that's the same way. That was an opportunity a lot of people wish they had and I couldn't pass it up.”
After joining Florida's staff in February of 2008, Bedford didn't have much time to enjoy his surroundings, but instead he had to begin to prepare for spring practice. Bedford, along with the help of Heater, had to face the challenge of improving the youthful secondary unit that failed to live up to the Florida Gators' standard in 2007. Although it is always trying for players to adapt to a new coach and even for the coach to adapt to his new players, the transition for Bedford seemed natural. Bedford's years of coaching experience have taught him that if you work hard, you can also play hard.
“I'm from the state of Texas and to me football is still a game,” Bedford said. “I like to run around and talk a little bit. The players look at me like if the coach is having fun, why can't I have fun? I think it kind of goes to them also, let's just go out and have some fun. I think if the football coach can make things fun, then the players have that much more of a tendency to practice harder. Long term, I think you can get a lot of benefits from that.”
The Gators' secondary may have already begun to reap the benefits. The returning members of the backfield had four career interceptions combined entering the 2008 season and matched that effort in one game, the 56-10 season-opening win over Hawaii.
Although Bedford has over 20 years coaching at the high school, junior college, college and professional level, The Gator Nation is hoping that his years spent with the Orange and Blue will be the best in his already storied career.
